Michal Kurlaender, associate professor in the UC Davis School of Education and Matthew F. Larsen, a postdoctoral teaching fellow in economics at Tulane University, recently released a study on how high school achievement tests can be good predictors of how students will fare in community college. The researchers also point out a “disturbing” achievement gap, with Latino and black students being less likely than their Asian and white peers to take and pass transfer-level college courses. And that the gap occurs even among students who performed well on their high school tests. Read Paul Fain’s article at Inside Higher Ed.

Michal Kurlaender investigates students’ educational pathways, in particular K-12 and postsecondary alignment, and access to and success in postsecondary schooling. She has expertise on alternative pathways to college and college readiness at both community colleges and four-year colleges and universities. In addition to working with national data, Kurlaender works closely with administrative data from all three of California’s public higher education sectors–the University of California, the California State University and the California Community College systems.